Name

Konrad Brits

Role

Chief Executive Officer

Konrad is the founder of Falcon and is responsible for defining Falcon’s business strategy. Over the last twenty years Konrad has built start-up export operations in Zimbabwe, Angola, DR Congo and Cameroon. He also developed Falcon’s Collaborative Supply Chain business model in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Nicaragua. Before starting Falcon Coffees, Konrad spent fifteen years with the WM Cahn and CTCS group, beginning his coffee career in Africa before relocating to the UK in 2000. Konrad spends his time on the road, presenting Falcon’s business concepts to prospective clients, visiting origin partners and supporting the trading team in Lewes.

Name

Agnieszka Krasuska

Role

Chief Operations Officer

Agnieszka joined Falcon in 2018, bringing with her more than 20 years of coffee industry experience including physical trading, strategy, finance and risk management.

Agnieszka has a Master’s Degree in Corporate Finance, is a coffee Grader under ICE London, and a coffee Arbitrator with the British Coffee Association and the London Court of International Arbitration. Agnieszka’s involvement in Falcon is to oversee operations of all departments to measure and control their performance and direct growth in a sustainable manner.

Name

Matt Horsbrugh

Role

Chief Trading Officer

Matt specialises in Latin American origins and sales to the North European markets. Before joining Falcon in 2012 Matt was Head of Trading at Twin Trading UK. He has been trading green coffee since 2002 and prior to that worked as a business writer on Latin American business and industry affairs. Matt is a Q grader and fluent Spanish speaker. A regular traveller to the Latin American region, he has also delivered numerous workshops on risk management and market access to coffee producers.

Name

Helen Marshall

Role

Chief Financial Officer

Helen’s interest in coffee developed in Rwanda where she lived for 9 months in 2015 providing accountancy and business development support to entrepreneurs. After visiting coffee washing stations in the east of the country she was fascinated by the coffee process and the potential for impact through socially responsible business practices. She started her career with EY in their London audit practice, gaining her Chartered Accountancy qualification in 2010. After six years working on audits of international businesses she left in 2014 to spend time in Rwanda, to further develop her interest in empowering people in fast developing economies. Whilst in Rwanda she came across Falcon and moved back to the UK in September 2015 as the Financial Controller.As CFO Helen is responsible for Financial Reporting, compliance and risk management and overseeing the accounts team. She is also identifying ways in which we can use finance to drive Falcon’s social impact agenda and measure impact.

Name

Matt Smith

Role

Regional Manager - East Africa

Matt joined the team in 2014 after spending 8 years in Rwanda, of which 5 were spent creating the green coffee exporting company Rwanda Trading. At Rwanda Trading he oversaw the growth from startup to exporting 20% of Rwanda’s coffee, and being the single largest exporter of speciality coffee from Rwanda. With a focus on creating sustainable partnerships with producers, Rwanda Trading Company finances a large portion of the production in Rwanda, and has trained over 5,000 coffee farmers in comprehensive agriculture practices.

Name

Brian Speckman

Role

Senior Sales Representative

Brian is based in Austin TX and is focused on sales to the North American market. Brian’s coffee journey started writing bad poetry at cafes in Berkeley California during high school. This love of coffee and language fused with his first coffee job as a barista at Peet’s Coffee. He quickly gained a reputation as a very slow barista (before slow was cool) and focused on romancing customers purchasing bags of coffee with long, poetic descriptions. After moving to Seattle Brian worked for Tully’s Coffee where his responsibilities were Master Roaster, Green Coffee buyer, developing quality control procedures for roasting and packaging, blend development and warehouse management. Most recently Brian worked for a large specialty-focused coffee importer for 10 years focusing on sales to north American clients and was responsible for purchases from East Africa for the company. Brian is a Q grader.

Name

Kevin Sullivan

Role

North American Sales

Kevin is based in Austin, TX and is focused on sales to the North American market. Before joining Falcon, Kevin held positions at Keurig Green Mountain and Keurig Trading in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he managed the sourcing of African and Asian coffees and the procurement planning for their seven different roasting plants. Prior to his time in coffee, Kevin spent 12 years in the snowboard and skateboard industry in various logistics and supply chain roles. In addition to his extensive origin travel, Kevin is a licensed Q grader and an experienced differential buyer.

Name

Lorenzo Fleishhacker

Role

Ethiopia Country Manager

Lorenzo graduated from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy with a Masters degree in Food Studies. He fell in love with coffee after visiting Monmouth Roastery in Bermondsey during a Foodie Trip back in 2014. Since then Lorenzo has held roles both on the roasting side of the business in San Francisco, as well as trading in Milan, Italy. Lorenzo, joined Falcon in April 2018 as the Ethiopia Country Manager, where he is responsible for managing our supply chain partnerships, hosting clients, working to improve Falcon’s service aspects and, of course, finding some of the finest coffees from this extraordinary origin.

Name

David Strom

Role

Financial Controller

David has over 20 years experience in Finance, having graduated in Finance and Accounting in 1994. David’s previous roles include Financial Controller, Finance Manager and Group Accountant, having held positions in Australia, the Cayman Islands, Germany, Guernsey, Jersey and the UK. Since joining Falcon in 2017, David’s role includes overseeing monthly financial reporting, being responsible for our year-end financial audit and building analysis of profitability at both origin and customer level to aid traders and other internal stakeholders.

Name

Andres De Leon Diab

Role

Logistics Coordinator - North America

Andres, originally from Guatemala, grew up immersed in the coffee world, officially starting his coffee career as a barista for a famous coffee shop in his native country. Eventually he moved to the US and spent the past 3 years working in trading and logistics for his families’ business as a green coffee broker. Andres joined Falcon in 2018 and is based in our Austin office where he manages all logistics for our North American clients.

Name

Richard Williams

Role

Trader

Richard joins us with a wealth of knowledge from the high-end specialty business, having spent the last decade working his way from front-end specialty barista to Master Roaster for the highly respected Nude Coffee Roasters in London. Richard is a qualified Q-Grader and completed his studies for his MBA at City University London in February 2017. Richard deals specifically with trading our commercial spot coffees, serving roaster clients in Europe and the UK.

Name

Katie East

Role

Logistics Manager

Katie has worked with Falcon since the beginning of 2008, spending her first three years with the company based on the Isle of Man. Katie has since joined the team in Lewes, where she oversees the logistics team and its operations. She has recently travelled to Ethiopia to understand, learn and implement new logistics procedures in origin. Katie also handles the companies certifications and has 100% successful compliance.

Name

Alex Evans

Role

Marketing Manager

Alex has been involved in the specialty coffee industry since 2010 and before joining Falcon, was responsible for writing and publishing a series of city guides documenting the specialty coffee scene both in the UK and Europe. Alex’s role with Falcon expands upon his previous experience, and includes graphic design, branding and content marketing.

Name

Tesby Mejia Saballos

Role

Futures Manager

Tesby has worked in the coffee industry since 2005. He has experience in Logistics, Accounting, Physical and Futures Trading. He began his career in Nicaragua on logistics and moved to the UK in 2007. He now manages Falcon’s Futures Position and Cash Management.

Name

Amanda Eastwood

Role

Sustainable Sourcing: Latin America

Amanda lives in Lima and acts as a liaison between our UK office and all of our coffee suppliers, not only in Peru, but regionally throughout Latin America . Her role also includes the mapping and roll out of our upcoming farmer training program. With nearly ten years in coffee, including time in Mexico, Tanzania and Costa Rica, Amanda combines her cupping skills and importer experience with a sound knowledge of origin supply chains, the specialty market, international development and Nicaragua in particular. Amanda currently serves on the SCAA Sustainability Council and has MC’d the Sintercafe convention for the past two years.

Name

Ben Feeney

Role

Marketing Assistant

Ben joined our marketing team in early 2018, assisting in branding, web design and events. Ben is a former freelance graphic designer, having worked on various print and web-based projects for multiple clients. His last role before joining Falcon was working a full-time position in post-production graphic design with Formula 1.

Name

Matt Sealby

Role

Head of Sales - Falcon Specialty

Matt is a qualified Physiotherapist but his fascination and love for coffee led him towards a new career with Falcon back in 2014. Matt has travelled extensively at origin, visiting farms in Rwanda, El Salvador, Indonesia, Brazil and Guatemala, to name just a few. He has experience at the front end of the coffee supply chain, having worked as a barista in Melbourne prior to joining Falcon. Matt is also a certified Q-grade cupper.

Name

Line Cosmidis

Role

Specialty Sales

Line graduated as an Engineer in Agronomy from Montpellier SupAgro in 2014, before beginning her path into the coffee industry; firstly in Venezuela and then for a year in Peru. Having gained valuable experience in South America, Line moved to Tanzania, where she spent 2 years working for Falcon’s sister company Tembo in Mbeya, applying her studies and experience in agronomy and farmer impact projects, alongside sales and logistics-based tasks. Line joined Falcon Specialty in August 2017, where she works alongside the sales team and provides support for our roaster clients across Europe. Line is also a fluent French, Spanish and Portuguese speaker.

Name

Simon Brown

Role

Head of Sourcing - Falcon Specialty

As Head of Sourcing for Falcon Specialty, Simon travels extensively throughout the coffee growing world, building relationships with producer groups and initiating agronomy projects to improve picking, processing and overall quality of production. In 2017, Simon was instrumental in projects in Peru and Honduras, which you can read about here.

Name

Josh Park

Role

Specialty Logistics

Josh joined the team in early 2016 after two years working in the freight forwarding industry. The specialty business is perfect for Josh, as working with a high quality product has always appealed to his love for fine foods. His focus at Falcon Specialty is to move our coffees from origin to our customers around the world, as smoothly and as quickly as possible.

Name

Gabriele Mesliuvaite

Role

Specialty Logistics

Gabriele started her logistics career in the novelty gift industry and joined Falcon in February 2018 to become a part of our Specialty Team. She handles all the incoming orders and works to ensure that the coffee reaches our domestic and international customers as swiftly as possible.

Name

Sophie Tubb

Role

Specialty Sales

Sophie joined Falcon after several years working as a barista and coffee shop manager and has since become an integral part of Falcon’s specialty sales team. Having honed her sensory skills as our QC and lab manager, in 2017, Sophie successfully completed her Q Grade certification.

Name

Helen Saville

Role

Quality Control

Helen is our laboratory and quality controller. She handles all the incoming and outgoing samples, does our sample roasting and prepares our daily cuppings to Q-grade specifications. Helen came to us with a number of years experience working as a barista and coffee shop manager.

Name

Steven Herbert

Role

Quality Control

Changing career direction and gravitating towards the coffee industry over the last few years, Steve joined Falcon early in 2018. He joins us with a background in engineering and coffee knowledge with the aim to assist with the expansion of our the Quality Control team.

Name

Lian Lovell

Role

Senior Accountant

Lian studied in China and obtained her professional accountancy qualification at university, before going on to work in the accountancy industry there for more than 10 years.

Lian has been a fully qualified Association Accountant Technician in the UK since 2012, and continues to study ACCA.

Name

Liz Hibbard

Role

Accounts and Credit Control

Liz joined the Falcon accounts team in January 2017, having previously worked in the business factoring industry, looking after a client portfolio and a team of credit controllers. More recently, Liz achieved her AAT Advanced Diploma, qualifying her in financial processes, advanced bookkeeping and final accounts.

Name

Craig Hensman

Role

Logistics

Craig joined Falcon in September 2014 to take a role in the logistics department working mainly with our Ugandan partners. Originally schooled in coffee at Lincoln & York Coffee Roasters where he served a 10 year apprenticeship. Prior to joining Falcon, Craig worked at Mercanta overseeing all logistic operations and learning the art of shipping green coffee.

Name

Anna Badal Curto

Role

Logistics

Anna joined the team in June 2017 and is an International Trade Technician. With more than 2 years in the forwarding industry prior to joining us, she wanted a change from shipping industrial products for something far more exciting – coffee. Ana now manages South and Central American shipments alongside Saro, who collectively form the LATAM team in Lewes. Ana is originally from Barcelona and faces every new coffee origin as a challenge to strengthen her logistical skills.

Name

Saro Palomares

Role

Logistics - Latin America

Saro joined Falcon Coffees in May 2014 after having spent three years at Twin Trading as Coffee Quality Officer. He studied Biochemistry and prior to joining Twin Trading, spent four years as a manager at Novartis. At Falcon, Saro handles logistics for South and Central America, a role which is complimented by his native Spanish language.

Name

David H. Cahuapaza

Role

Quality Control - Peru

David is a qualified Q-Grader and oversees our quality control from a dedicated lab in Lima, Peru. As we deal with many cooperatives in Peru, having an experienced origin-based cupper like David helps with the efficiency and consistency of coffees we ship around the world. A long-time coffee professional, before joining Falcon in May 2017 David previously worked in the QC department at Cecovasa cooperative in southern Peru.

Name

Teshale Fekadu Duguma

Role

Operations Manager - Ethiopia

Teshale joined Falcon coffees as Operations Manager in our Addis Ababa Office in October 2018. He graduated from VHL, University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, with a Masters in Agriculture Production Chain Management. Teshale has worked in the coffee sector for more than 10 years in different positions, and has served as farm manager, farm supervisor, as an agronomist in commercial-owned coffee farms and as a project coordinator.

As Operations Manager, he helps identify areas and producers that fit Falcon’s sourcing needs and also puts in place procedures that help us facilitate export delivery and performance out of Ethiopia. Teshale speaks 3 languages: Oromiffa, Amharic and English.

Name

Eyoel Wubayehu Moges

Role

Logistics and Administration

Eyoel joined Falcon Coffees in October 2018, as Logistics and Admin Specialist based in our Addis Ababa Office. Eyoel has been working in the Logistics and Freight Forwarding Industry since 2013 and has a broad background and experience, both in export and import operations, managing shipments for many companies, and covering a whole range of products.

Eyoel brings operational and country-specific knowledge to improve the logistical flow from Ethiopia and to provide detailed information to our teams in the UK and US, helping us to update our customers and make more strategic decisions at the contracting stage.

Name

Gemechu Mamo

Role

Quality Control Manager - Ethiopia

Gemechu graduated from Debub University (now Hawasa University) in Food science and Post-harvest Technology. Gemechu worked in Zonal Food security and Disaster Prevention and Preparedness for more than four years, before joining Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) for eight years where he served as Coffee Quality Controller and Coffee Quality Supervisor.

As Quality Manager and Q Grader for Falcon’s Ethiopia office, Gemechu utilises his experience from the ECX and is in charge of cupping coffee samples that will be sent to our UK lab and buyers.